Associate professors of the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism Frank D. Durham and Tom Oates will read from their new book, Forming the Public: A Critical History of Journalism in the U.S. The University of Illinois Press, which published Forming the Public, describes it as “provid[ing] an eye-opening analysis of the role played by journalism in the ongoing struggle to shape and transform ideas about the public…Durham and Oates offer examples of the influential words and images deployed by not only journalists but by media workers and activists. Their analysis moves from the patriot-inflamed emotions of the revolutionary period to the conventional and creative ways the American Indian Movement confronted the mainstream with their grievances” (press.uillinois.edu). Bonnie Brennen, author of Opting Out of Digital Media, praises Forming the Public as “an important addition to the literature of journalism history…[that offers] valuable context for significant struggles in the development of journalism in the United States.”

Frank D. Durham is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. Thomas P. Oates is an associate professor in the department of American Studies and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. His books include Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL.